World Cup: U.S. star Michael Bradley frustrated

Michael Bradley stuck out his right foot to meet Fabian Johnson's pass, ready to slot the ball into the empty net from 6 yards out. Surely this would be a goal.

Then the ball struck Portuguese defender Ricardo Costa on a knee in front of the goal line and ricocheted away. Bradley stopped at a post, put a hand on each cheek and closed his eyes in shock, as if he had seen a ghost.

It's been that type of World Cup for the U.S. midfielder. His night would get worse when he was stripped of the ball late in stoppage time, leading to Portugal's tying goal in Sunday's 2-2 draw.

"In the game there's a million of these kind of plays," Bradley, 26, said afterward.

The U.S. may need at least a tie Thursday against three-time champion Germany to reach the knockout stage of consecutive World Cups for the first time. Teammates count on Bradley's end-to-end play both to drive the attack and stiffen their defense. Bradley ran 13,922 yards against Ghana and 13,346 versus Portugal, FIFA says. Among players with two games, only Australia's Matt McKay covered more.

Much has been expected of Bradley ever since he trained with the national team for the first time before the 2006 World Cup, when coach Bruce Arena gave the then-18-year-old his national team debut against Venezuela.

He became a regular during the next four-year cycle when his dad, Bob Bradley, took over as coach. By the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, he had transformed into one of the top U.S. players, part of the spine along with Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey and Tim Howard. He scored the tying goal against Slovenia, helping the Americans reach the second round.

But in this year's opener against Ghana, he had little impact despite completing 42 of 56 passes, both team highs.

"I'm certainly honest enough and hard enough with myself to know that it wasn't my sharpest night, but unfortunately they're not all going to be," Bradley said. "I think as a team we realized at a certain point that it wasn't going to be a night making a million passes or necessarily playing the most beautiful soccer, but it was about running and tackling and closing down and making the game hard on Ghana."

He was far more dominant against Portugal, again leading the U.S. with 65 completed passes and 75 attempts.

"Michael is undoubtedly one of our key players," said Jurgen Klinsmann, who succeeded the elder Bradley three years ago. "He has an engine that's unbelievable. He's covering up for other players all over the place. His vision and his passing is just outstanding. Here and there it's not going to be a perfect game."

Bradley's final moments against Portugal were especially frustrating. Eder shoved him off the ball, stole it and made a short pass to Nani, who sent it up the field and wide to Cristiano Ronaldo. The world player of the year sent a 25-yard cross into the box, which was headed by Silvestre Varela past Howard with about 30 seconds left in five minutes of stoppage time, preventing the U.S. from clinching advancement with a game to spare.

Soccer has let Bradley see the world during stints with the New York-New Jersey MetroStars, Heerenveen (Netherlands), Borussia Moenchengladbach (Germany), Aston Villa (England), Chievo Verona and Roma (Italy), and now Toronto FC, which gave him a $6.5 million salary this year that trails only Seattle's Clint Dempsey in Major League Soccer. Bradley has gained knowledge of tactics and style — in addition to learning Italian, Dutch and German.

Klinsmann is counting on him against Germany, the nation he helped lead to the 1990 World Cup title and coached to the 2006 semifinals.

"I'm absolutely sure that Michael will grow big-time into this tournament," Klinsmann said. "Every game you play now is getting bigger."

Altidore out: Jozy Altidore will miss the U.S. game against Germany on Thursday due to his strained left hamstring. The forward was hurt in the Americans' opening 2-1 win over Ghana and didn't play in Sunday's 2-2 draw with Portugal.

"Jozy is recovering really well," U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann said Tuesday. "This game comes still too early for him. But we're working on him. We'll get him back in this tournament, as we said, so once this game hopefully is done successfully, we'll have a good chance to have him back then in the team."

Germany has four points and leads Group G over the U.S. on goal difference. Portugal and Ghana, who also play Thursday, have one point apiece.

Defender Matt Besler said he felt pain in his right hamstring when he stretched during a clearance Sunday but said it was less painful than during the opener, when he came out at halftime. "Matt Besler is no problem at all," Klinsmann said.